I've been using the Gelee and the Brulee for 3 weeks now. I have used them on top of CK, GLI and SheaM separately and layered with CK plus one leave-in. I use a palm-ful for the back sides and front while upside down and a palm-ful on the top and back while right side up. I scrunch out the excess water with my towel, plop for anywhere from 10 minutes to 30 minutes and when I take it down, I use a pea-size of the Brulee to scrunch into my ends. I then use another pea-size of the Brulee emulsified in my hands and run them over the top of my hair. I air dry and I have the most beautiful, well-defined curls. I even have great clumping and that doesn't always happen. I have good hold and low to no frizz right through to the end of the day.

I don't know how it will hold up in the hot Florida summer, but so far, I feel that I've have good success with it. I think you may have something great on your hands BB!

Originally Posted by mpgirl

This FSG stuff is the bomb! Tried mine today under KCCC and all I have to say is WOWZA~! I'm thinking it rates up there with the best stuff I've ever tried, maybe even with KCCC status! I live in Florida and I had virtually NO FRIZZ today when I left work with only one touch up (some butter about mid day). My hair was soft and just loved the way it felt. You have a loyal customer BB!
The biggest test will be when the florida humidity returns which will be sometime by the end of next month. In late April it will be in full swing so I will post back the results.
Wahooo!!!
Oh, and the butter.....well, ditto!
I may even try the FSG without the KCCC, that's a huge risk for me!! (LOL)

BB--I just have to drop in to tell you that I've been using your FSG as my one and only styler for the last couple of days and my hair just couldn't be happier! I'm surprised at how long my bottle has lasted me considering how much I use! Definitely one of my top 3 products

Today was 2nd day hair, and I conditioned, and mixed in some FSG with KCCC, the way I did the other day with ArcAngell. And the FSG with the KCCC feels so nice and soft! I have good curl definition, but it's really soft and shiney! Love it, thanks BB!!

See, my first post above was early this morning. But really, the end of the day is always the true test for me - how's it looking at 4 PM, 5 PM? Well lemme tell you, I had a full entire day of soft, shiny curls that lasted ALL DAY LONG! BB, you are truly a genius, I don't know how you do it!

See, my first post above was early this morning. But really, the end of the day is always the true test for me - how's it looking at 4 PM, 5 PM? Well lemme tell you, I had a full entire day of soft, shiny curls that lasted ALL DAY LONG! BB, you are truly a genius, I don't know how you do it!

Originally Posted by LisaF1163

We figured out how she does it earlier in the thread--she's actually a fairy princess

BB--I just have to drop in to tell you that I've been using your FSG as my one and only styler for the last couple of days and my hair just couldn't be happier! I'm surprised at how long my bottle has lasted me considering how much I use! Definitely one of my top 3 products

Originally Posted by Laura Lee

Are you using a leave-in conditioner too?
I dream of being able to shower and only put in one product... I may have to order this stuff.

Also can people tell me what extras (if any) they ordered with the FSG? I got overwhelmed when I saw all the options.

BB--I just have to drop in to tell you that I've been using your FSG as my one and only styler for the last couple of days and my hair just couldn't be happier! I'm surprised at how long my bottle has lasted me considering how much I use! Definitely one of my top 3 products

Originally Posted by Laura Lee

Are you using a leave-in conditioner too?
I dream of being able to shower and only put in one product... I may have to order this stuff.

Also can people tell me what extras (if any) they ordered with the FSG? I got overwhelmed when I saw all the options.

Originally Posted by diggity

Nope, this is the one product I've got that I do not use a leave in (or anything else) with. It's moisturizing enough on its own.

You can talk to BB via PM about the options and she'll be able to help you narrow it down most likely if she can find out a little about your hair I personally got some mag sulfate (my hair loves it), honey, grapeseed oil, and the vanilla scent for my first batch.

Mine has about as little mag sulfate in it as you can get. I also have honey, aloe, coconut oil and I think that's it. You can also get all sorts of wonderful scents - she scented mine with Sweet Pea, and it's so pretty. Just tell her about what your hair is doing, and she can help you figure out what would be good for you.

I am loving BB's FSG because I only have to use one product! I usually need a leave-in, gel, and maybe something else for curl-enhancing, SOTC, etc. With the gelee, I only need it and I get soft beautiful curls with no product feel. That is a huge bonus, especially for travel! And I am rocking some nice 3rd day hair!

Hey guys, sorry to bump this thread up again, but I have a few questions!

So I bought this FSG a few weeks ago, but have only used it once since then. I had poofy/frizzy hair after using it and haven't had the time to worry about having a bad hair day. BUT, I feel like I should experiment some more with this because I have yet to read a negative review about it, and I'm thinking it was probably just an error in my application process

I use HETT daily, always by itself. It works wonders I tell you. I'm thinking of mixing a bit of HETT with the FSG. Would you recommend applying FSG first and then adding some HETT, or applying HETT followed by layering a bit of FSG over it? Does it matter?

I know that it's probably different for everyone, I'm just looking for some opinions!

I just had to de-lurk to write my first-ever post on NC. I've been reading for months, trying everything to learn how to deal with my hair. I have found it--Botticelli Babe's custom FSG.

I apologize for writing a novel on someone else's thread, but a bit of history is in order, to help explain my issues and obsession with controlling the frizz. I have always had thick straight hair, medium texture, medium porosity--just medium. I permed for my teenage years and early 20's. Then had a business bob for years, blowing it out every single day. About 10 years ago I was nearing 30 years old, and noticed that my hair didn't look smooth any more. It was developing "texture." And frizz. Halo frizz started slowly and really got going in the last few years. About three years ago, at age 36, I noticed my hair starting to wave. I live in the desert, so there wasn't a lot of humidity, but during the summer thunderstorm season I saw more wave--and frizz. It just got worse and worse, and I discovered silicones and smoothing ingredients.

Two years ago I cut my long hair off just above the shoulders and WHOA! I had actual curls. And frizz--lots of it. But I wanted to be more natural and not fight my hair's texture every day with a scorching hair dryer and flat iron. A year ago I started using curly-specific products, and must have bought every brand out there. Most were a waste of time. Some did work well, but they all had the cones that seemed to work in the short run--but which eventually left my hair limp, dull, lifeless.

February 2009 I decided I'd had enough and bought Curly Girl and spent the weekend reading the book and posts here. I was desperate. I mean, most people with waves and curls have figured out what to do with their hair by my age, but I had gone from thick and straight to wavy-curly-frizzy in the space of a few years. Hormones, you've got to love them.

Anyway, all the non-cone products seemed to make my hair feel better, but it looked AWFUL. The halo frizz was like a brillo pad sitting on the back of my head. I felt like crying a lot, and finally in the beginning of March went full CG--no cones, no sulfates, co-washes, using the techniques of plopping and pixie diffusing and so forth. Through reading here, I also learned about the problem of humectants in dry climates, and threw every product I had with glycerin and mineral oil in a box and sold them at a garage sale.

I found this thread and decided I had to try this FSG, especially because I could customize it and avoid glycerin and magnesium sulfate--another ingredient that makes my hair both frizzy and straw-like.

I tried FSG alone, and it blew me away. I was still moving away from the sulfates and trying to find the proper conditioning ingredients, so it wasn't perfect. I still had some frizz issues and more wave than the curl I wanted. But I kept it up, adding a touch of other products along with the FSG as my base. That was more than half the battle--the FSG giving hold and moisture without weighing down the hair. And the frizz was starting to lie down so nicely. I just needed a touch more curl, I thought.

Then we had a rainy day, and I had my best hair day ever. So I started to realize the dry climate was really holding back my curl--it wants to come out and play, but single digit humidity and dew points in the teens make this tough. That's where a product like BB's FSG comes in.

With a bit of tweaking of the routine, and the addition of Curls Like Us microfiber towel to scrunch out water and set the curl pattern without messing it up, I'm darn close to holy grail here. I don't have lovely 3-4C hair, but I know I never will. Still, I'm moving from wavy to spirals and ringlets, and all of my hair is soft and shiny and as frizz free as textured natural hair can get. And it's all based around the FSG. That's the first ingredient that goes on my hair once I turn the shower off. If I lived in a climate with a bit more humidity, it would likely be my only product; since I don't, I've added a tiny amount of a few other products to provide more curl definition and hold (BRHG and Set It Free).

So my new routine, which gives me the best waves and curls ever, is this: I wash my hair in the evening about 2-3 times/week. I have to do evenings because it takes my mid-back length hair about five hours to dry. I am pretty much full CG: no sulfates, one clarifying wash every 10 days or so, but the rest of the time I use AOHR or Elucence conditioner. These are critical because they don't have glycerin or mineral oil or sulfates--things my hair doesn't like at all. After rinsing out the shampoo or co-wash, I apply and leave in Deva One Conditioner and leave three minutes or so, then rinse completely. I then scrunch an ounce or so of FSG into my sopping wet hair upside down. Then I scrunch in a very small amount of BRHG (with some lustrasilk olive oil for extra moisture if it's really dry), squeeze out the moisture with Curls Like Us microfiber towel, and plop for a few minutes while dressing and such. If necessary, I rake a bit more FSG into my crown area, because the microfiber and plopping do seem to rile up the halo frizz a bit--but the FSG knocks it right back. Miraculous! Finally, I put a few sprays of Deva Set It Free on my hands and gently scrunch it in, pixie diffuse halfway dry with high heat low intensity air, then don't touch my hair again until it's totally dry. At this point, I have SUPER crunchy but very well-defined Botticelli curls and spirals, which I put in a pineapple when I go to bed. I wake up, shake my hair loose, and voila! I have amazing (for me) defined waves and curl, without a hint of crunch. AND NO FRIZZ.

What's even more incredible is I will get second and third day hair with this--I don't even need to wet it down or apply any more product, just pineapple every night. Of course day three isn't quite as neat and curly as day one, but still...three days! No re-wetting. Is this FSG great or what?! I think the key for me is that it coats every strand of hair without weighing it down; it puts a crunchy cast on the individual curls/spirals and allows them to dry that way, without expanding and poofing. Then, when it is totally dry, I can SOTC and my hair is smooth, shiny and soft. I haven't had soft hair for YEARS. And there's no flaky product or build-up. It's awesome.

If I could only use one product, the FSG would be it. As it is, I add a dime-sized amount of BRGH, the same of Lustrasilk if the dew point is below 30F, and a touch of Set It Free sprayed on my hands and scrunched in. If I leave out the SIF, my hair is just a bit less spiral-y and more s-wavy. If I leave out the BRHG, I don't get day three hair unless I add more product. So I'd say about 80% of my "hair solution" is BB's FSG. I'm so happy I found it, and live in fear of BB coming online one day and saying she's not going to make it anymore....many tears would be shed if that happened!

There you have it, another thrilled customer. And I'm going to keep playing with it and try to get my hair to the point where I only need FSG and a micro-fiber towel. I think it's possible if the weather cooperates with me.

Now I don't know about the 3 and 4's out there. My hair is a pretty unusual type, with everything from waves to s-curls to spirals--and some very kinky, zigzag hair thrown in. And I also have some spots on my head where the hair is very nearly straight (underneath in the back). So clearly I'm in some kind of stand-alone category. But this stuff is da bomb for me.

Hope this helps.

Heather

PS the signature line and picture in my profile is from my silicone-loving days, when I was in despair. It's unreal what the cones did--it cut down on the frizz, but killed all curl and just gave me waves. I will have to update, but that was the only picture I had that showed the type of hair I was dealing with, so I used it. I wouldn't want anyone to look at that shot and think that's what BB's FSG did, because it's not!

After over 30 years of straight hair, things started changing. Now I'm trying to learn how to care for my new 2b-2c curls. The desert climate and hard water do not help.

Currently I have too much curl to be wavy, but not enough curls to be, well, curly.

...I have found it--Botticelli Babe's custom FSG...this stuff is da bomb for me.

Originally Posted by Noraz

What a great hair story. Thanks so much for sharing it with us - you're quite an inspiration!

I too grew up in a dry climate (Colorado) and never knew I had curly hair (now 3A) until I moved east for college. I always blow-dried it, and thought it a bit wavy and unruly, but not curly. Convinced of this, I even had a spiral perm at the age of 14--on the day of the 9th grade prom no less--which turned my non-layered, chin-length bob into a frizzy pyramid. My date made fun of my hair the whole night.

It wasn't until I moved to the midwest for college--and discovered humidity for the first time--that I realized my hair was naturally curly (and somewhat difficult to control). Last week, nearly 20 years later, I returned to Colorado armed with my winter HG products, and had curly, defined hair there for the first time.

Figuring out the right combo is hard for all of us CG'ers, but doing it in a dry climate is particularly challenging. Congrats to you for your new fab hair! Post some pics when you can get a chance.

BTW, what did BB use in your FSG formula? You mentioned no mag sulfate or glycerin, but what about agave, honey, aloe, and/or oil?

Thanks for the nice welcome. Dry climate curly hair seems to be an oxymoron, sometimes. I know that when I visit family in coastal CA, where the humidity is easily 6X what we have here in Northern Arizona, I'm a solid 3a curl. But here at home, I sometimes barely look like a 2. Then a storm rolls through, and I'm loving it--who would have thought a curly haired person would like rain. But we can get rain here with just under 50% relative humidity.

I know in my case that my hair has changed, as I grew up in coastal CA, went to school in Washington D.C., lived in tropical climates in S. America, and spent several years in Atlanta. I had no curls then, though I was starting to develop frizzies in the Atlanta years. I moved to AZ about ten years ago and my hair has completely changed texture in the last few years. It's also much darker, so much that my family keeps asking if I'm coloring it...I'm not. And it's not that I'm getting grays, which sometimes come in much coarser/curlier than the rest of the hair--I've only got a few gray hairs that I know of. I'm just one of those people whose hair completely changed texture compared to a few years ago.

I'm always in search of the perfect combo of hair stylers, but that's because I'm a total product junkie who has a cupboard full of lotions and potions. Last night I tried some KCCC on top of the FSG...not loving it, not hating it. It seems a bit less curly than normal, and feels kind of producty. Maybe I used too much, but I can't wait to co-wash and put my "normal" combo of FSG, BRHG, SIF back in.

The weather doesn't help. Sometimes the western US is just too crazy. We had snow on Saturday and 75 degrees on Sunday. My poor hair doesn't know which way is up. So more FSG for me.

You asked what formulation I got. I asked for NO glycerine or mag sulfate. Glycerine is a disaster for my hair--instant frizzball that gets lanker as the day goes on. Mag Sulfate I'm just suspicious of, because it's so dry here and the water we have is very hard with tons of iron (I live in the red rocks). I just don't think adding a salt is a good thing for my hair, even though it supposedly boosts curl. I did have BB put in honey, avocado oil (for lightweight moisture), and aloe. I don't think she put in agave, as it's also a humectant and we are bone dry right now. Dew point was 13F yesterday, with 60mph winds and 45 degree air temps. Tomorrow it will be 70+. The only thing more confused than my hair is the poor garden, which doesn't know whether to bloom or not.

has lists of scents and ingredients. Give her a try, you just need a paypal account. I want to try the Brulee, but since it has glycerine will have to wait until the monsoon season this summer when we get dew points up in the 60's or more.

H

After over 30 years of straight hair, things started changing. Now I'm trying to learn how to care for my new 2b-2c curls. The desert climate and hard water do not help.

Currently I have too much curl to be wavy, but not enough curls to be, well, curly.

I know just what you're going through with the dryness. I live in CO. It was 73 degrees yesterday but the dewpoint was only 18. I have a water softener, but will probably skip the magnesium sulfate as well because of the salt my softener uses.

I grew up in NYC with serious humidity in the summer and higher dewpoints than here in the winter. After over 7 years in CO I am just beginning to learn how to deal with my hair in this climate. My hair is extremely curly, though it's loses some of its curl here.

You've been a HUGE help to me. I've been wanting to place an order but haven't because I had no idea what to ask for, being so new to all of this.

Just go to BB's etsy page and use the "contact this seller" link down the right hand side. Send her a message with your situation and your concerns, and she will work out a proposed concotion for you. She's awesome, she's spent mucho time replying to my neurotic hair-freak-out emails and helping me figure out which ingredients are just plain bad. For example, Jessicurl stuff just made my hair feel like garbage, really straw-like. I guessed it was the magnesium sulfate, so we didn't put it in my order last time. In the last week I decided to try to boost my curl a bit and used some Recoil from my cupboard. Even though I just used a bit, my hair didn't feel very good...BB pointed out that the common denominator with the jessicurl and recoil is likely the magnesium sulfate. Mystery solved, my hair doesn't even tolerate a small amount of mag sulfate. I will try more honey, as BB suggested, to boost curl that way.

So the customer service has been fabulous, and I really recommend you write her a message on her etsy site and see what she thinks.

Good luck!

Heather

After over 30 years of straight hair, things started changing. Now I'm trying to learn how to care for my new 2b-2c curls. The desert climate and hard water do not help.

Currently I have too much curl to be wavy, but not enough curls to be, well, curly.